EAA TIF considered by council (see update at end of story)

Tomorrow night the first phase of a TIF request by the Experimental Aircraft Association will be considered. As most readers know, I have long been opposed to projects using tax-incremental financing unless certain requirements and criteria can be met. Those requirements and criteria, as well as other interesting and pertinent information regarding TIFs can be found here, here, and here.

I have also believed that the City of Oshkosh uses TIF as a crutch to foster development when we’ve seen time and again other communities creating plenty of development without it. And given the criteria and requirements set forth in the foregoing information, I believe TIFs have been inappropriately used in some cases. Be that as it may, the city has been told that the development being proposed by EAA will occur with or without the TIF, but that certain things will be left out of the project if the TIF is not approved. That is how the “but for” requirement is being met by EAA and their “hired gun” (EAA is apparently willing to pay the city for the public finance advisor services offered by Ehlers).

If you look at this page of the Ehler’s web site you’ll see that they say they are independent. “To avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, we do not work for developers or bond investors. We work only for local governments,” they say. Well, in this case the City of Oshkosh may be getting invoiced for services rendered, but we now know who’ll really be writing the check in the long-run. How independent is that, really? It may be nice to not have to lay out the money for this particular service, but this is one time when it certainly doesn’t seem, at least to me, that outside advice was needed.

Councilman Tony Palmeri has a
humorous, yet to-the-point commentary on his blog this morning that cuts right to the heart of the matter and discusses the “butt for” test. I encourage folks to check it out; then get ready to sit back tomorrow night and watch the discussion unfold. Warning: You may want to have your Dramamine nearby in case the spin gets too much to handle.

* UPDATE: THe Oshkosh Northwestern is reporting as of 9:03 p.m. Monday evening that the EAA has requested this item be pulled from the council agenda, citing a need to provide more information about its request. You can read more about this request by going here. There will also be a full story in tomorrow's Oshkosh Northwestern.